


We're All Ants

by rosepose



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Airplane, Boredom, Dan Howell - Freeform, Dan Howell/Phil Lester - Freeform, Existential Crisis, Fluff, I Blame Youtube, I Don't Even Know, I may have written this while having an existential crisis, M/M, Phil Lester - Freeform, Plane, Wait...I can tag anything?, aeroplane, i have no life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 13:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6705562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosepose/pseuds/rosepose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Dan is bored with Phil on a plane and Phil challenges him to write something. *Existential Crisis Warning*</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're All Ants

They’re on a plane. It’s been three hours. Dan looks over at Phil. “I’m going insane.”

Phil frowns. “Why?”

“We’re going to be on this bloody plane for five more hours. I have never been so bored.”

Phil chuckles.

“Goddammit, Phil, my mental state is not something to poke fun at.”

“Sorry, sorry. You’ve got your laptop, why don’t you edit something?”

“But that’s work,” Dan whines.

“But you won’t be bored anymore, will you?”

Dan narrows his eyes. “I would rather die of boredom.”

Phil frowns a moment, but his face brightens when he has an idea. “Write something.”

Dan looks confused, but then gives Phil a half-smile. “Write what?”

“Anything.”

“Anything at all?”

“Yep.”

Dan scoffs. “What for?”

“For my amusement.”

Dan punches Phil in the arm. “Ow, you don’t have to be violent.”

“What makes you think I care about your amusement, Phil?”

“C’mon, Dan, it can be anything. A story, a memoir, a...smutty fanfiction about you and Kanye.”

Dan punches his friend again, harder. “Ow,” Phil says pathetically, rubbing his arm. “I’ll give you twenty-five minutes, Dan,” Phil says. “I expect to be impressed.”

Dan raises an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

He chuckles and opens his laptop. The words just flow out of him. Needless to say, he’s proud of his finished product.

**I have been alive for about twenty-five years. To some, that’s not very long. To me, it’s enough. It has been enough for me to witness the cruel unfairness of life and death. It’s been enough for me to experience the sorrows which I will no doubt come to feel again. I understand life, and yet I have not lived. I am fortunate enough to exist in a place where I don’t have to suffer hunger or poverty. I am loved. I have a family and friends. And for that,I am grateful.**

**But when I look around and see all the unhappy people in the world, I tend to think that I will inevitably become one of them. I am content with continuing on the way I am now, but at some point, I will be forced to grow up, to survive on my own. That, to me, seems to be the scariest prospect of them all. And with the remains of broken dreams everywhere you turn, I can’t help but think that I will be among them.**

**It’s sad, isn’t it? That we all have to find happiness. And some never do. Even if I am content with a job, a spouse, and a few children when I’m older, it won’t change the fact that nothing I will ever accomplish will have any meaning. We will all be forgotten. That’s why it’s ironic that people with tiny, un-expandable minds only focus on themselves, perhaps the least significant thing in the whole of creation. People try to find meaning in life, to make sense of it. They’re wrong to. Life doesn’t have meaning. Nor does it make sense. It’s just an opportunity we’re all given. It has no purpose. Our lives and our deaths will have no meaning, and they won’t impact the world.**

**I like to think of it like this: we’re all ants. Our job is to stay alive, find food, help our kind, and make more ants. We don’t know how tiny we are, nor do we realize how large the world, and even the universe is in comparison to us. We’re simple creatures. We fight to stay alive, and then we die. We don’t like to over-complicate things. We keep on marching. It’s our job. If we all realized how insignificant our labors are, we would go insane. No, no time to think. March, march, march.**

_**We have to do our jobs.** _

Phil’s timer beeps and Dan hands his laptop to Phil, who scans the page, his eyes widening.

Dan smiles. “Have I given you an existential crisis?”

Phil nods.

“Good.” Dan yawns. “I’m tired now. Shove over, Phil.” Dan sighs as he rests his head on Phil’s shoulder. “I don’t care if I’m an ant, Phil,” he mumbles sleepily, “I like my job. Even if it won’t matter in a hundred years.”

Phil smiles. “Me, too, Dan.” And with that, they fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short drabble I had to get out of my system. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
